Some Famous Bristol Doctors

In 1696 an Act of Parliament established the Bristol Corporation of the Poor. This brought together the Poor Law arrangements of all the parishes in the City. It was hoped that-the inmates by their work would produce goods which would have a ready sale and thus defray the costs. For this purpose the Aldworth mansion was purchased from a group of merchants, one of whom was Edward Colston. This building after ceasing to be a private residence had first housed the Bristol Mint and more recently had been a sugar refinery. The 'union' opened in 1698 and Dr. Thomas Dover offered his services as a physician free of charge for two years. He insisted on the inmates having a diet better than that of the average employed labourer. The building situated near St. Peter's Church soon became known as St. Peter's Hospital (Figure 1). At first all went well, but the sale of products was not a success and conditions deteriorated, and before long the aged, infirm and lunatics preponderated. In 1786 a report by Sir Thomas Eden noted, apart from overcrowding, filth, bugs and vermin. The building survived as the headquarters of the Guardians of the Poor until destroyed by enemy action in 1940. Thomas Dover was born in 1662 near Moreton-inthe-Marsh. He graduated B.A. from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1684. After being a clinical assistant to Sydenham for two years he was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, and graduated B.M. in 1687. He set up in Bristol in 1691. After his two years service to St. Peter's Hospital he apparently decided that trading with the West Indies, presumably with slaves, was more profitable than treating patients in Bristol. Between 1701 and 1707 he made several voyages to the Caribbean as a part owner of the ship and as a ship's doctor, and was often referred to as Captain Dover. In 1708 he set sail from Bristol with Woodes Rogers's privateering expedition to circumnavigate the world as one of the owners in the Duke and Duchess. This journey took nearly four years, the ships returning to the Thames in 1711. Throughout the health of the ships' crews was, for that time, surprisingly good, probably because of Dover's influence. He was not actually the ships' surgeon, but as he had subscribed the second largest sum to finance the expedition, he sailed to represent the owners and was entitled to preside over the council of the captains and navigators and to have two votes. The ships carried two official surgeons, a surgeon's mate, an assistant surgeon, and an apothecary. In his capacity as representing the owners Dover soon

Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Bristol. THOMAS DOVER In 1696 an Act of Parliament established the Bristol Corporation of the Poor. This brought together the Poor Law arrangements of all the parishes in the City. It was hoped that-the inmates by their work would produce goods which would have a ready sale and thus defray the costs. For this purpose the Aldworth mansion was purchased from a group of merchants, one of whom was Edward Colston. This building after ceasing to be a private residence had first housed the Bristol Mint and more recently had been a sugar refinery. The 'union' opened in 1698 and Dr. Thomas Dover offered his services as a physician free of charge for two years. He insisted on the inmates having a diet better than that of the average employed labourer. The building situated near St.
Peter's Church soon became known as St. Peter's Hospital (Figure 1). At first all went well, but the sale of products was not a success and conditions deteriorated, and before long the aged, infirm and lunatics preponderated. In 1786 a report by Sir Thomas Eden noted, apart from overcrowding, filth, bugs and vermin. The building survived as the headquarters of the Guardians of the Poor until destroyed by enemy action in 1940.
Thomas Dover was born in 1662 near Moreton-inthe-Marsh. He graduated B.A. from Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in 1684. After being a clinical assistant to Sydenham for two years he was admitted to Caius College, Cambridge, and graduated B.M. in 1687.
He set up in Bristol in 1691. After his two years service to St. Peter's Hospital he apparently decided that trading with the West Indies, presumably with slaves, was more profitable than treating patients in Bristol. Between 1701 and 1707 he made several voyages to the Caribbean as a part owner of the ship and as a ship's doctor, and was often referred to as Captain Dover. In 1708 he set sail from Bristol with Woodes Rogers's privateering expedition to circumnavigate the world as one of the owners in the Duke and Duchess. This journey took nearly four years, the ships returning to the Thames in 1711. Throughout the health of the ships' crews was, for that time, surprisingly good, probably because of Dover's influence. He was not actually the ships' surgeon, but as he had subscribed the second largest sum to finance the expedition, he sailed to represent the owners and was entitled to preside over the council of the captains and navigators and to have two votes.
The ships carried two official surgeons, a surgeon's mate, an assistant surgeon, and an apothecary. In his capacity as representing the owners Dover soon showed his cantankerous nature and fell out with Woodes Rogers so badly that they sailed in different ships. Finally he insisted on sailing as commander of one of the Spanish ships they had captured. After much argument this was agreed but Dover was forbidden to interfere in any way with the navigation of the ship. During the journey the expedition called at the Island of Juan Fernandez and there rescued Alexander Selkirk, who had been marooned alone for four years and four months. On the return Selkirk's story formed the basis of Daniel Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe'. Whether Defoe ever actually met Selkirk or not is uncertain. This expedition, too, saw the St. Peter's Hospital capture and sacking of the Spanish town Guayaquel in which Dover played a prominent part. He became enthusiastic over South Sea trade, mortgaged his property on the Cotswolds, and invested all his money in the South Sea Company and in 1714 was appointed President of the Company at Buenos Aires. This appointment was terminated after two years, possibly because he had been engaging in some private trading. When the South Sea Bubble burst he was ruined. He struggled, not very successfully, to collect a practice in Bristol and in 1720 was admitted a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and moved to London. However, shortly afterwards a Dr. Wagstaffe complained to the College about his professional behaviour, but after an enquiry Dover was only 'admonished'. This may have been because he was a friend of Sir Hans Sloane, the President. Incensed by this he wrote a book The Ancient Physician's Legacy to his Country'. This was a 'do it yourself' textbook of medicine which ran into six editions, the last in 1742. In this he attacked the College and the practices of the Fellows, who 'like moles work underground lest their practices should be discovered to the Populace'. As a doctor he appears to have been fairly sound. In the introduction to the Legacy he wrote: 'It is essentially necessary in the Cure of Diseases to be thoroughly acquainted with the Nature of them. Without this knowledge no good is to be done.' Nowadays we remember him as the originator of Dover's Powder pulv.ipecac.et opii. But in his own time he was notorious for his use of mercury as a panacea for nearly all ills and was often known as the 'Quick silver Doctor'. This was much criticised and one of his critics recorded the following: 'I have heard a pleasant story of a mercurial lady, who in dancing at a Public Assembly, happened to let go some particles of the quick silver she had taken in the morning; which shining on the floor in the midst of so great an illumination like so many brilliants, there were several stooping down to take them up .' His therapeutics were certainly vigorous at times but he attributes to bear will make a vary great alteration in my way of living. It is to set up in this rich and populous city an Infirmary for sick and wounded by an annual subscription as is done at St. James's Westminster and Hyde Park Corner and lately at Winchester.' When the Infirmary was founded he was appointed the first Physician. He seems to have become rather autocratic, as after a while the rest of the staff were concerned because he insisted on seeing all patients to be admitted, including those recommended by the surgeons. He died in 1761. A board to his memory was erected, the inscription on which reads as follows: 'The growth and improvement of this Charity have been greatly owing to his care and John Bonython conduct. He was zealous and indefatigable in promoting its success and watchful in directing every occurrence to its advantage. He always had in his view the Plan and Design of this benevolent institution, viz.: the care and relief of the laborious Sick and distressed Poor, whose good he had at heart: no calamitous objects presented themselves but he participated in their grief and with a Christian concern and Brotherly tenderness felt their pains. This was the principle that made him active in affording his most generous and kind assistance: and we presume tho' now alas he is dead, yet he will live for ages in the grateful acknowledgements of thousands and in the good esteem of all.' EDWARD LONG FOX SENIOR The most distinguished Bristol physician at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries was Edward Long Fox Senior (Figure 3). Another Cornishman, he was born at Falmouth in 1761, where his father was in practice as a surgeon and apothecary. At the age of 18 he was apprenticed to his father, but the same year he entered the University of Edinburgh. However, in 1781 he returned to Falmouth as an assistant to his father for two years. After going back to Edinburgh, he graduated M.D. in 1784, the title of his graduation thesis being 'De voce humana'. He moved to Bristol in 1786 and set up in practice in Castle Green. He was elected physician to the Infirmary in April of that year. The election, as was usual at that time, was closely fought and quite a public affair. Long Fox, as a Quaker, was supported by Messrs. Harford, Battersly and Butler, all Quakers. His main opponent, Dr. Cave, had the strong support of Messrs. Fry and Cave, distillers and wine merchants. The contest thus became known as The Distillers versus The Quakers.
In a subsequent election Long Fox voted at the door as a member of the staff, as he was entitled to do, but later voted again as a subscriber. When challenged and accused of voting twice, he replied that 'he really didn't recollect it, but he believed he had'. Munro Smith, the Infirmary historian, excuses this as being 'of course, mere absence of mind'. As a Quaker he was a strong supporter of the anti-slavery movement. His father, in addition to his medical practice, was a member of a firm owning ships. At the outbreak of the war with France, these ships were fitted with guns as privateers and made some valuable captures. His share of these amounted to ?22,000, but his Quaker principles made him strongly disapprove. He made enquiries and discovered who in France had suffered the loss and at the end of the war Edward was sent to France to refund the money. A Bristol paper, learning of this, published the following doggerel: A doctor well skill'd in the medical art 'Mongst others for France was resolved to depart And leave his domestic concerns But what will become of his patients the while? '0 fear not' a neighbour replied with a smile! 'They will live till the doctor returns'.
In 1793 he moved to Queen Square and became more and more interested in the humane treatment of the insane as opposed to the barbarities in use at Bedlam. Although a pioneer in this, he may have been influenced to some extent by the work going on at this time at the Retreat in York. In 1784 he succeeded Dr. Henderson in charge of a private asylum at Downend, but in 1 804 he built Brislington House which was opened in 1806. Here chains and intimidation were abolished and games, drives, occupational pursuits and regular church services took their place. Some patients were provided with their own houses. At one time he was severely criticised for studying Mesmer's Animal Magnetism (Hypnotism) and for trying it on some patients. His reply was that 'The experimental enquiry was begun from most disinterested motives, but that being Edward Long Fox Senior unable to ascertain that any such power as animal magnetism existed he had laid it altogether aside'. As an authority he was called to Windsor in consultation on George III during one of the monarch's relapses. In addition to his interest in lunacy, he speculated on the 'animalcular' origin of disease and in 1831 published 'Surmises respecting the Cause and Nature of Cholera'. Retiring from the Infirmary in 1 81 6 he devoted himself to Brislington House, but in addition he bought Knightstone at Weston-super-Mare, where he built salt water baths 'chiefly for the use of Infirmary patients'. However, it is not clear how they got there. He was married twice and had twenty-two children, four of whom became doctors and one, Henry Hawes Fox, succeeded his father as physician to the Infirmary from 1816 to 1829. He died in 1835, aged seventy-four.

THOMAS BEDDOES
In 1793 Dr. Thomas Beddoes (Figure 4) retired from his appointment as Reader in Chemistry at Oxford as a result of his unpopularity there which stemmed from his pamphlets expressing sympathy with, and approval of, the French Revolutionaries. He came to Bristol and lived at 3 Rodney Place. Long interested in the chemistry of gases, he conceived the idea that their inhalation would be of value in the treatment of disease. His first venture was to establish a laboratory in Hope Square for the preparation of various gases or facititious airs as they were called. He poured scorn, correctly, on the claims of the Hotwells for the treatment of consumption, which was already falling into disrepute. Fairly rapidly he developed quite a practice and became very friendly with the literary circle in Bristol, which included Coleridge, Southey and Wordsworth, and he married Anna Maria, Maria Edgeworth's elder sister. In 1799 he established at 6 Dowry Square a small hospital, designed to make use of the 'factitious airs', known as the Pneumatic Medical Institute. Needing someone to supervise the preparation of the gases he appointed the young Humphry Davy, then aged 19, who had been recommended to him by friends in Cornwall. In the Institute Davy carried out many experiments on the effects of the 'laughing gas' (Nitrous oxide), using himself and others, including Coleridge, Southey and 'some young lady friends'. As a result of these experiments Davy anticipated its use as an anaesthetic when in 1800 he wrote that it might prove of use during surgical operations, since it appeared to abolish physical pain. After Davy moved to London in 1803 Beddoes gradually gave up the use of gases and the Institute was moved to Broad Quay, where it lingered until about 1809. Beddoes was never appointed to the staff of the Infirmary, but in 1798, following the habit which led to his leaving Oxford, he published a pamphlet entitled 'A suggestion towards an essential improvement in the Bristol Infirmary'. In this he recommended that two physicians and four surgeons should retire annually. It can be understood that this did not commend him to the Infirmary staff. Another of his pamphlets was an early attempt at preventive medicine entitled 'A Guide for Self Preservation and Parental Affection'. In this he stressed the importance of good diet, cleanliness and fresh air. In 1797 with F. C. Bowles, an Infirmary surgeon, he advertised a course of lectures on Anatomy to be given at the Red Lodge. The first lecture was to be by Beddoes. At the time appointed on November 17th the company were assembled but no lecturer. After some time Bowles 'ran to Clifton' and came back very out of breath with the lecture which Beddoes had hardly finished and which Bowles had to read, but 'found it difficult to decipher.' His use of gases led to much scoffing by the orthodox practitioners who regarded him as a quack. Rhymes such as the following were circulated about his activities: 'Nor boast thy airs cosmetic powers alone: Disease and vanquished time their virtues own. Varietate'. After Edinburgh he spent a few terms at Oxford, at first at St. John's 'where not finding the society congenial' he entered as a Gentleman Commoner at Trinity. His period at St. Peter's Hospital gave him the opportunity of making an intensive study of lunacy on which he became a great authority, contributing many articles on it and formulating the concept of 'moral insanity'. In 1814 he was appointed Physician to the Infirmary. Henry Alford, who was a student in 1822, recorded that although Prichard was the junior physician at that time he was far in advance of the others in culture, in general and professional knowledge and in literary reputation. He belonged to the depleting school of therapeutics and one of his patients wrote: Dr. Prichard do appear With his attendance and his care He fills his patients full of sorrow You must be bled today and cupped tomorrow.
He also had a great belief in counter irritation. His treatment for diseases of the brain like hemiplegia was by an incision of the scalp along the sagittal suture kept open by the insertion of peas. This was long known as Prichard's incision. Nevertheless it is recorded that as a physician he was distinguished 'by the earnestness with which he devoted himself to his duties and by his kind and considerate conduct towards his patients, and further that he kept detailed notes of his Infirmary patients in short, terse latin sentences'. But his work as an anthropologist is what really made him famous and for which he is mainly remembered. As a side line to this he wrote on Egyptian Mythology in 181 3. His original thesis was gradually expanded into two volumes and ran into three editions. In this he concluded that all human races are of one species and one family. He speculated that man originally had a black skin and that the white races were produced 'under the influence of civilisation'. In view of the discovery of very early human remains in Africa by Leakey and others this may well be true. He was also far ahead of his time in concluding firmly that acquired peculariarities are never transmitted to the offspring.   James Cowles Prichard at the Red Lodge, but in 1845 on appointment as a Commissioner in Lunacy he moved to London, where he died three years later.

JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS
By 1830 it was clear that the Infirmary could not deal with all the patients seeking its help and a group of benevolent persons, mostly Quakers, formed a committee with the object of doing something to rectify things. The result was the foundation of the General Hospital which, despite the difficulties occasioned by the Bristol riots and widespread cholera epidemic, opened its doors to patients in November 1832. The first physician appointed to the new hospital was John Addington Symonds ( Figure 6)  with a thesis on Rheumatic Fever which was awarded the Gold Medal. After a few years as assistant to his father, where in the country practice he started to study the mode of spread of typhoid which was eventually the subject of his magnum opus. He moved to Bristol and was appointed physician to St.
Peter's Hospital in 1842. Following a common sequence he became Physician to the Infirmary five year's later. Budd has been described as the first scientific physician on the staff of that institution. His enthusiasm and interest in his patients was such that when he walked down to the Infirmary as soon as he saw it 'like a boy within sight of his bathing place or cricket field, he could hardly restrain himself from setting off to run, in his anxiety to see how his patients were getting on'. He believed in giving the patients a good diet and it was reported to the committee investigating expenses that Dr. Budd ordered a very much larger proportion of 'Extraordinaries' (fowl, fish, eggs, broth, beef tea, wines and spirits) than any of his colleagues. One great service to the Infirmary was his activity in promoting the building of a pathological museum. As a result of the pressure of a very large practice he resigned from the Infirmary staff in 1862. When the British Medical Association held its annual meeting in Bristol in 1863 he gave an address on The Laws of Contagious Epidemics'. In this he maintained that many contagious diseases are due to minute living organisms. This was developed in his great book 'Typhoid Fever, its Nature, Mode of Spreading and Prevention', published in 1873. The case, he wrote, may be likened to that of a poppy or many another plant. Poppies, like contagious fevers, propagate themselves. When the seed capsule is ripe it drops off, but the capsule itself has to be broken up, often travelling long distances the while before the numberless seeds it encloses are cast upon the soil to spring up as fresh poppies. And so in a measure with the fever seed also". He showed how typhoid was spread by water and sewage. In addition to this his book is noteworthy for the splendid illustrations of the pathology of typhoid fever which have probably never been bettered. He was never in a hurry to rush into print with his ideas. In 1866 he wrote to a friend, Dr.      By 1880 the Bristol Eye Hospital, which had been founded seventy years before largely due to the enthusiasm and drive of William Henry Goldwyer, had sunk to a very low ebb both financially and professionally. But in 1882 it received a great stimulus and was virtually rejuvenated by the appointment of F. Richardson Cross (Figure 12)    by making accommodation available in the octagon above the Board Room. This had previously been divided into cubicles to provide bedrooms for nurses. These cubicles were converted into a small histology laboratory, three study/offices and an electrocardiograph room. The adjoining bathroom, with a board over the bath, served as the dark room necessary for the processing of the cardiograms which at that time were recorded on a glass photographic plate and then had to be printed on paper. The University, through the Department of Physiology, provided the electrocardiograph. Here he directed further work on Carey Franklin Coombs acute rheumatism, on bacterial endocarditis and cardiovascular syphilis. He was one of the first in the West of England to make a diagnosis of coronary thrombosis which was confirmed by a post-mortem carried out in the patient's house. In all he did, he did with zest and enthusiasm and it may be claimed that he lived every moment of his life doing nothing to spare himself. In an effort to improve the case of the child suffering from acute rheumatism he persuaded the Crippled Children's Society that such a child was equally crippled as one who had a paralysed leg and threw himself wholeheartedly in promoting the foundation of the Orthopaedic Hospital at Winford, where at one time three quarters of the patients were suffering from acute rheumatism and rheumatic heart disease. Although his main interest was Rheumatic heart disease, he was concerned with all aspects of cardiology. In 1926 in his Long Fox Lecture he dealt with the 'Aetiology of Cardiac Disease' and the following year he gave the Chadwick Lecture on 'Cardiac Disease and its relation to Industrial Efficiency'. Another of his crusades was the amalgamation of the Bristol Royal Infirmary and the Bristol General Hospital and he was one of the chief architects of this fusion, but unhappily he died eight years before it was effected. In 1930 he was Lumleian Lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians and in these lectures dealt exhaustively with all aspects of Cardiovascular Syphilis. The following year he was elected to the Council of the College, but died shortly afterwards at the tragically early age of 52. It is interesting to reflect that 40 years after his death the two diseases to which he gave so much study acute rheumatism and cardiovascular syphilis-were practically extinct in Great Britain. After his death friends and colleagues subscribed to found a memorial lecture to be given in the University every two years. The first of these was given by Mr awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Bristol. He also received honorary degrees from Queen's University, Belfast, and from the National University of Ireland. Hey Groves was a very generous person, although his generosity was usually concealed and more than one impecunious medical student was enabled to qualify by his financial assistance. A great individualist he had no use for red tape. It is recorded that when going on board the ship that was to take him to Alexandria during the 1914-18 war he was told that no R.A.M.C. Officer could embark unless properly dressed and wearing spurs. He scoured the docks and found a rusty pair of spurs in a marine store, put them on and went on board. He then tossed them ashore repeatedly for the use of his colleagues, each of whom used them in turn. He loved travel and was a founder member of the Moynihan Travelling Surgical Club. He pursued 'play' with the same zest that he put into his work. Not only was he an enthusiastic golfer to encourage this he instituted a golf competition for the staff of the two hospitals but he could often be seen doing the skater's waltz at the local ice rink or swimming in the pool at Clevedon.
He died in 1944 after a long illness.
It is thus clear that over two and a half centuries Bristol can claim to have had a succession of doctors distinguished in many different fields, whose contributions are still remembered today. Many of them came from the West Country and many were born into medical families.